Rob
Lucas, age 35, works by day as an editorial assistant at Cleveland's Gray
& Company Publishing. In his other life he is a working
filmmaker. A filmmaker who just made Cannes.

His short documentary about deceased Cleveland Olympic
champion Stella Walsh was recently completed. He will be taking it to the
Cannes Film Festival in a few weeks.

Walsh was a prominent track and
field star in Cleveland. In 1932, running for her native Poland, she won an Olympic gold medal for the 100-meter dash in Los Angeles. She also won a silver for Poland in the 1936 Olympics in
Berlin.
Returning home to Cleveland she became a local sports
celebrity and women's track coach.

In 1980 Walsh was shot and killed in
an Uncle Bill's parking lot during a robbery that went wrong. During her
autopsy it was discovered that Walsh had male genitalia. The media had a
field day with the revelation and some women athletes thought she should be
stripped of her medals.
Lucas spoke with The Plain Dealer's Michael
Heaton about his film.

Q. When
did you first hear about Stella Walsh?

A. I
first heard about Stella while working on two books published by Gray &
Company.

Both Chuck Schodowski and Dan Coughlin told stories in their books
about meeting Stella and gave a brief description of her gender controversy. At
the time I couldn't believe that I had never heard the story before and started
to conduct a little research. Once I found out that it was not only was it
true, but that nobody had previously made a movie or written a book about her,
I started shooting the documentary.

Q. What
did you hope to discover in your research for the film?

A. While
conducting research I started to see a pattern of conflicting stories and
sometimes — what appeared to be — outright lies. I was interested in finding out
what her true story was and why it isn't very well known today. The more and
more I learned about Stella, the more I became just as interested in her
accomplishments as an athlete and an activist as I was in her gender.

Q. Wasn't
she married briefly? How did that go down?

A. Stella
was married in Las Vegas and then moved in with her husband in California.
Their union only lasted a few months, but she ended up keeping his last name
for nearly the rest of her life. The rumor at the time was that Stella got
married so that she could try out for the U.S. Olympic team. Although she was
an American citizen she could only run for the States if she was married to an
American because she ran for Poland in 1932 and 1936. Just after she found out
that she did not make the team she and her husband parted ways.

Q. Was
there anyone unwilling to talk?

A. Unfortunately
most of her remaining family members were not involved with this documentary.
Stella was biologically unable to have children, but she has several surviving
nieces and nephews. It took years to track some of them down, but I eventually
spoke to two of them. They both wished me luck, but declined offers for
on-camera interviews. I also spoke to the former president of the Women's U.S.
Track Committee, who was very kind and answered many questions, but did not
want to appear in the documentary.

Q. Seeing
film footage of her, especially in later years she looks almost comically
mannish. Had people been whispering about her for years?

A. There
were always a lot of rumors about Stella. She appeared very masculine, she wore
some outrageous wigs for several decades and, although she was briefly married
to a man, appeared to spend most of her time with women. Some people joked that
she might be a man, but many others assumed that she might be a lesbian. I
believe that the reason WKYC was so intent on receiving a copy of her autopsy
just after her death was to prove or disprove any pent-up theories about her
gender.

Q. What
was the budget for your film?

A. I
didn't start out with a specific budget, I just started shooting. I fed my
hard-working crew and paid for a little gas here and there, but the biggest
chunk of this documentary's budget is by far the licensing fees for the
archival footage. Those bills add up to well over $5,000 for just a few
seconds.

Q. How
did the Cannes invitation come about?

A. I
submitted the movie to the Short Film Corner of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
Your movie must meet the program's requirements and be approved by Cannes. I'm
not sure how many movies are submitted, but roughly 2,000 shorts from 90
different countries will be available on screens throughout the Palais de
Festival. Unfortunately it is nowhere near as prestigious as being an
"Official Selection" to Cannes, but I do receive a festival pass, I
am allowed to attend almost every event and, most importantly, have permission
to promote and possibly sell my movie at the festival. I think that's pretty
exciting, because unless you have accreditation through Cannes, the general
public cannot attend the festival.

Q. Were
there any morgue photos available?

A. I
have not seen any of Stella's morgue photos (at least the coroner's office did
not provide any images) but her autopsy is public information. The crime scene
photos that appear in the documentary are from police records.

Q. Did
she have female sex organs too?

A. According
to the autopsy, Stella did not have any internal female reproductive organs. It
does say that she had an opening below a small, underdeveloped scrotum. I
believe — and have read in several sources — that when she was born she looked
outwardly female, which is why her birth certificate says she was a girl and
her parents raised her as one.

Q. Her
parents obviously knew. Are they deceased?

A. If
Stella were alive today she would be 103. Her dad died in 1972 and her mom in
1991. I'm fairly certain they would have known. A few of Stella's friends
mentioned after her death that they knew about her gender issue and discussed
it with her.

Q. What
was the name of your first film?

A. My
first movie was a short called "Montezuma's Revenge: A Slightly Soiled
Love Story," which I made in 1997 and is about an unusually messy first
date. My first feature was a comedy called "American Stories," from
2006, which is still very near and dear to my heart. It is a road trip movie
that contains four short stories. I made a lot of friends and have many fond
memories of making both of these films.

Q. Did
you ever get distribution for it?

A. Unfortunately
"American Stories" only showed at a few film festivals and at the
Cleveland Cinematheque, but never found distribution. I have many copies
on DVD in my basement, so if anyone would like one for free, please let me
know!

Q. Do
you work for the Akron Film Festival?

A. I
am currently the Director of Communication and a Trustee for Akron Film+Pixel,
which used to be the Akron Film Festival. Rather than just host an annual
event, the organization has programs several times a month. In late 2013 we
received a grant from the Knight Foundation and we are in the middle of
building a brand new 50-seat cinema in downtown Akron, which will open this
summer.

Q. Where
and when will Stella Walsh be shown in Cleveland?

A. I
will have a regional showing in June as a reward for my Kickstarter investors.
After that I will likely have a small summer showing at an undetermined
location, then hopefully at the Chagrin Falls Documentary Festival in the fall
and the Cleveland International Film Festival in 2015.

Q. Do
you have another project lined up?

A. I
hope to one day expand this short into a feature-length documentary. So, I'm
still very interested in speaking to people who are related to or knew Stella!
The next project will probably not be a straight bio, but more of a nonfiction
story about intersex athletes like Stella who are currently alive and active in
athletics today. I have also started writing a feature-length screenplay about
Stella, but I want to to focus on her whole life rather than on just the gender
story.

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